I'm a geochemist. In the past ten years I've fixed mass spectrometers, blasted sapphires with a laser beam, explored for uranium in a nature reserve, and measured growth patterns in fish ears, and helped design the next generation of the world's most advanced ion probe. My main interest is in-situ mass spectrometry, but I have a soft spot in my heart for thermodynamics, drillers, and cosmochemistry.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

In my meandering career from academia to government to private sector, and back into all the grey areas in between, I've been an author on a few journal articles, government reports, and other publications. Usually, these are collaborations between groups of separated people, not all of whom interact with every other member of the team. For example, in the academic literature, I have a total of 21 co-authors, of whom I have met 9. If we include government reports as well as papers, then I have 42 co-authors, of whom I have met 17. I find it interesting that this ratio is so similar between the two types of reporting (about 40%). So I was wondering: for those of you who read this blog and publish, is your ratio about the same?

Anonymous, do you work on really big projects with a lot of people? I'm guessing, for example, that you haven't been on a multi-agency paper where you are not the liaison person, or an oceanographic or space mission paper...

Depends on whether you break it out by papers I'm the lead author on or am a secondary collaborator. I've met everyone that I've published with as a lead author, but for those projects that I take a secondary/tertiary role, there are a good 10-20% that I've never met. I'm very early career so I expect that percentage to increase.

So Eli is sitting in the office of some guy and we are talking as science types do about what we are doing. Seems awfully familiar to both of us until reality dawns, we are co-authors on two papers through a mutual friend.....

Disclaimer:

All opinions, measurements, figures, and facts on this page are the personal opinions of Charles W. Magee, Jr, and do not represent the views of any of his employers: past, present, present-but-about-to-be-past, or future. None of the content herein has been subject to peer review, and should be treated with caution or derision. Any passing mention of OSHA code violations, criminal activities, unethical or unscientific behavior, or the clandestine Australian nuclear weapons program are fictions created to make rhetorical points, and do not represent the reality of my, or anyone else's, workplace. Do not attempt any scientific protocols described herein at home, with the exception of the chocolate chip cookie recipe. Do not apply the products of that protocol to individuals with heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or cholesterol, egg, wheat, dairy, or chocolate allergies. Do not view this blog continuously for more than 45 minutes without stretching and taking other precautions to prevent computer-related chronic injury.

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